The rain came quickly and without warning. The umbrella was useless against the force of the downpour. The streets quickly flooded and cars sprayed the sidewalk with water. It took just minutes to be soaked from head to foot. I considered turning back to the hotel, but I was already half-way to the cinema and 300 people were waiting. My hosts at the Asian Development Bank were calling.

We have to do something, and do it now. We have produced more plastic in the last 10 years than we did in the whole of the last century. Plastic pollution has become a man-made global catastrophe. In a world of convenience living, we’re now so addicted to plastic that we’re drowning in it.